Petroleum Development Oman and Omantel partner with the Middle East Leadership Academy

The partnership is an extension of the strong corporate social responsibility strategies of both companies and offers promising candidates the chance to become part of one of the region's most innovative and exciting leadership initiatives.

PDO and Omantel were joint sponsors of the fourth MELA session which was held in Muscat at the Barr Al Jissa Resort and Spa. Over 70 participants, business leaders, speakers and facilitators took part in the intensive 10-day experiential programme and attendees came from Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Qatar.

PDO Managing Director Raoul Restucci said: "Leadership skills and characteristics are key for any young professional today, and the extensive training that MELA offers and the opportunities within its network can benefit the next generation of Omani and regional business leaders.

"We are delighted to be associated with this excellent training scheme. A number of PDO staff have entered the academy since its launch in 2011 and have been schooled in areas such as team building, conflict resolution, social media, decision making, operational excellence and high productivity.

"I would also like to thank Omantel for its generous support of the MELA event this year which underlines its strong commitment to talent development and emphasises the overall quality of the leadership programme."

This year, PDO plans to train more than 450 staff on executive leadership or accelerated leadership programmes. The Company places great importance on being a good corporate citizen and has developed a number of structured social investment programmes which are implemented in close collaboration with the Government through a joint Social Investment Committee.

The Company works closely with the communities it operates in and within all aspects of Omani society and its social development programmes are targeted at boosting vocational training, vital infrastructure, education and heritage.

The aim is to achieve a mutually beneficial and sustainable environment in which its oil and gas operations can be carried out.

Commenting on the MELA initiative, Omantel Chief Executive Officer Dr. Amer Awadh Al Rawas said: "We are pleased to partner with PDO and MELA in this great training programme.

Equipping our people with leadership skills that prepare them to be better leaders in the future is a key pillar of our HR strategy.

"At Omantel, we recognise what it takes to be a leader on corporate and individual levels. Being the largest and the leading integrated telecommunications services provider, we place an immense significance on providing our people with quality training that can enhance and shape their leadership skills and thought processes to ensure that Omantel leadership is maintained for years to come. We believe the MELA scheme is a perfect programme that can enable us to achieve our training and development objectives."

"Building the capabilities of our internal teams is important to ensure our success and leadership. However, equal importance is also placed by Omantel on building the capacities of young Omanis as part of our CSR activities. Last year, Omantel partnered with different government authorities to sponsor local and overseas training opportunities for young Omani entrepreneurs. Again this year, we partnered with the Ministry of Manpower to provide on-job training for 30 General Diploma graduates with an opportunity to be part of the Omantel team when they successfully complete the training programme," Al Rawas pointed out.

MELA is a private, non-profit effort to nurture future leaders in the Arab world that is a joint initiative between Arab business leaders and the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF), an American private, non-profit corporation whose members serve on a volunteer basis as many of the facilitators and instructors at the MELA workshops.

As part of a network of networks, MELA connects its members to similar and expanding networks encompassing over 1,000 leaders from the United States and Central Eurasia through the Society of International Business Fellows and the Central Eurasia Leadership Alliance. A new network will being launched in South Asia in 2014 giving regional leaders access to executives across the world.

MELA provides its members the opportunity to build lifelong bonds of trust with other leaders from business, education and civil society from across the region that ordinarily would take years to develop.

To enter MELA potential members must first attend the MELA Leadership Workshop which offers the newest MELA members perspective on leadership development, bond with each other and the MELA mission, and begin the process of integrating into the larger MELA organisation.